"It's not immorality. Its desperation."
Dan sighed into his coffee cup as Laurie continued an ongoing tirade of complaints about her least favourite person, regarding his least favourite people.
"Those girls have nothing. Nothing! Then these men come along willing to offer them fairly decent money for services that, admittedly, may not be very pleasant for the girls but it's probably the best offer they've ever had...you know?"
Apparently his lack of a response was enough for her to interpret as agreement since she carried on. "...It's probably more money than they've ever seen and off course they take it. Anyone in that situation would and he has no right to judge them for that."
To be honest Dan agreed with her for the most part, but since Rorschach was his partner, and sort of his friend, he still felt the need to put up at least some sort of argument.
"Well...I wouldn't say everyone would"
Laurie seemed outraged at the suggestion.
"Of course they would. If people are hungry enough and desperate enough and given the right incentive they will do pretty much anything. It's human nature. That's why his views are so backwards, he just ... doesn't understand what it's like to have nothing. To have no other choice."
Dan stared at her incredulously.
"and you do?"
She rolled her eyes in exasperation.
"Thankfully not. But at least I have the ability to empathise. A quality your stuck up sociopath of a partner is sorely lacking."
Dan just sighed and took another sip of coffee.
"Look over there, see that guy?" He glanced around at the mass of crowds surrounding them.
"What guy?"
Laurie pointed across the street to where a redheaded man was walking towards the next corner.
"The weirdo with the sign."
Dan balked at the description. This is the woman who claims to have heightened empathy. Sometimes he wonders...
"What about him?"
"He just tried to buy a sandwich from that vendor and was turned away. That means he doesn't have any money."
Dan felt a pang of sympathy for the man and looked back towards his companion wondering where she was going with this.
Laurie was becoming more animated with every word "That means he's desperate. I mean look at him. He's clearly homeless. I'll bet he hasn't eaten a proper meal in days!"
Going by the grin on her face she was disturbingly happy about this. Dan was getting concerned.
"Right.."
"Proposition him"
"What!?" Dan physically jolted with surprise and quickly rushed to wipe up the coffee he had spilled with the movement.
"Proposition him. Go on."
Dan stared at her baffled and Laurie rolled her eyes again.
"He's desperate and hungry and clearly has no dignity left by the look of him. I bet you any money if you ask him to give you a blow job for say ... 200 dollars?... he will accept. That will prove I'm right!"
Dan sat gaping at the woman in front of him in horror. "Why would I...?"
Laurie scoffed at him.
"I'm not saying actually go through with it Dan. Just ask him and see what he says."
"and what if he says yes?"
"Then say you've changed your mind and give him the money anyway. Here I'll give you the $200 myself"
"No"
"Why not?"
"Why not? Because ...no!"
Laurie gave a look of derision
"Fine then. You can just change your name to Nite Chicken"
Dan stared at her in frustration for a moment before standing up quickly and slamming the coffee stained serviettes down on the table "Fine"
He held out his hand as Laurie dug around in her purse before handing over the agreed $200 dollars. Dan once again wondered what a woman who carries around that amount of disposable cash knows about desperation.
He stared at the notes for a few moments trying to work out how Laurie had managed to talk him into this before moving towards the street, increasing his pace to a jog to catch up with his target.
"Ouch.. stop, just... let me do it."
Dan snatched the ice pack away from Laurie and gently eased it onto his swollen cheek.
"Don't you glare at me Daniel Dreiberg, this is your own fault"
What the hell?
"My fault? How is it my fault?" Dan winced as the movement from shouting caused further jolts of pain through his face.
"Well you're a vigilante. You've been fighting crime on the streets of New York for years, honing your skills and reflexes...are you honestly saying you weren't fast enough to duck a hobo swinging a sign?"
If looks could kill, Laurie would be bursting into flames.
The brunet woman laughed suddenly "You'd better hope Rorschach never finds out about this. He might dump you and recruit the hobo as his partner instead."
"Laurie?"
"hmm?"
"Shut up!"